Prof Abdulkareem Emerges UNILORIN New Vice-Chancellor

By Modupe Gbadeyanka On Sunday, October 29, 2023, the race for the sharing of N12.5 million by the top 3 contestants of the fifth edition of the InterswitchSPAK National Science Competition commenced. A total of 81 secondary school students are competing for the crown of the best Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students in Nigeria. The first prize winner will receive a whooping sum of N7.5 million worth of scholarships for five years, a laptop, and monthly stipends. The second-place winner will receive N4 million in scholarships for three years, a laptop, and monthly stipends, while the third-place winner

By Bliss Okperan The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has warned the rising school fees of tertiary institutions in Nigeria could backfire in the future if nothing is done by the federal government to stop it. Speaking on Channels TV Sunday Night, the union leader said in two years’ time, about 40 to 50 per cent of students in universities across the country could drop out of school because of their inability to pay the high fees. The don urged the federal government to stop the arbitrary increment in school fees by

By Bliss Okperan Students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) have taken to the streets in protest against the increment of tuition fees by over 100 per cent. The aggrieved students, who marched around the school premises, took their protest to the main gate of the institution, causing traffic gridlock along the Etta-Agbor and Mary Slessor roads in Calabar Municipality LGA. The protesters took placards with various inscriptions to kick against the decision of the management to increase their fees as well as other charges, asking for an immediate reversal. Some of the inscriptions read, “return to the old fees”,

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Norwegian writer, Mr Jon Fosse, for “his innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable,” according to the Royal Swedish Academy. One of his country’s most-performed dramatists, Mr Fosse, 64, has written some 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays. Learn more about the 2023 #NobelPrize in Literature: https://t.co/dVT9QJr7PM — The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2023 Mr Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the academy, announced the prize Thursday in Stockholm. Mr Malm said he reached Fosse by telephone to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Women operating tech-related businesses have been urged to enter for a special training and mentoring programme organised by Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A). The programme, She Leads Africa (SLA) Accelerator, since inception, has trained over 30 entrepreneurs and given out over N15 million in funding. Some of the judges, mentors and advisors who have participated in the Program include Aliko Dangote (Chairman of Dangote Group), Mo Abudu (Founder of Ebony Life TV) and Ben White (Founder of Venture Capital for Africa). SLA Accelerator is a 3-month program designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of

By Adedapo Adesanya Taking interests in entrepreneurship, particularly the cottage industry and other small-scale businesses can help boost and finance the 2020 budget. This was the stance of initiator of One Community One Industry Initiative, Ms Victoria Oluwaseun, while speaking at the end of the Community Mega Agropreneurship skill acquisition training in Ikire, Osun State. Ms Oluwaseun said one of the ways to realise revenue for budget financing is to encourage local contents that would help people pay back to the government. Using the initiative’s training scheme as a case study, she noted that people were trained on converting agricultural

By Dipo Olowookere A fintech company, Crowdyvest, is at loggerheads with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a new product designed by the former. Crowdyvest Victoria Island Multi-purpose Cooperative Society had come up with a product targeted at its members called Halal Fund. Halal Fund, according to Crowdyvest, was to allow its cooperative society members to invest in a rice sharing project, but SEC in a notice directed the company to suspend it because it was not authorised to embark on such. The highest regulatory agency for the nation’s capital market issued a cease-and-desist order to Crowdyvest, claiming it

By Dipo Olowookere No fewer than 1.7 million households will benefit from the food relief package from the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID). At a news conference in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), Ms Zouera Youssoufou, stated that this gesture was part of complementary efforts to help alleviate the effects of the lockdown and restrictions adopted by governments across the nation. Also, Ms Youssoufou noted that the group has ordered for 250,000 supplies for tests and another 150,000 extraction kits to fast-track molecular testing for the deadly coronavirus, noting that the reality of the

Stanbic IBTC continued to champion the job creation drive in Nigeria through initiatives such as its graduate trainee programme and various entrepreneurial programmes, which had created job opportunities for Nigerians. Dr Demola Sogunle, Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC commented on the financial institutions’ role as a job provider in Nigeria. He said the financial services provider was always at the forefront in bridging Nigeria’s unemployment deficit through its various programmes and provided necessary tools for its graduands to navigate through the 21st-century job environment. “As a financial institution that placed much value on job creation, Stanbic IBTC continued to

By Modupe Gbadeyanka President Muhammadu Buhari has again postponed the date of his 2017 budget presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly. Mr Buhari had earlier slated Thursday, December 1, 2016, for the presentation, but shifted it to Wednesday, December 7, 2016. However, the latest is that the President would not be presenting the 2017 appropriation bill to the lawmakers tomorrow as earlier planned. It was gathered that Mr Buhari will now be doing this on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. According to the Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, a letter

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Last weekend, distributors of Dangote Cement Plc were rewarded by the company for their unflinching loyalty. They were given N2.4 billion as their sales bonus for 2016, while the company promised to give them N5 billion for 2017. Speaking at a ceremony organised to reward the distributors, Chairman of Dangote Cement Plc, Aliko Dangote, who personally handed the cheques to them, enthused that, “Our success story would not have been possible without you, our distributors, who work tirelessly to ensure that the product gets to our customers in every nooks and crannies of the country. “We can

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A total of 887.024 million shares worth N17.450 billion in 16,955 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Business Post reports. This is in contrast to a total of 998.973 million shares valued at N11.455 billion that exchanged hands last week in 13,626 deals. Our correspondent reports that it was another four-day trading week as the Federal Government of Nigeria declared Friday, September 1 and Monday, September 4, 2017 as public holidays in commemoration of the Eid -el- Kabir Sallah celebrations. But when the market resumed on Tuesday,